The Mexico girls were so close to taking penalty kicks on Wednesday night.

Mexico vs Kirksville Photo Gallery

The score remained tied at 1 against North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville through one 10-minute overtime period and the final seconds were waning in the second extra 10 minutes in Mexico. However, two nights after a similar goal that beat Wright City, Brenda Matuz crashed toward the net to score on a rebound goal for the 2-1 last-second win and first victory over Kirksville since 2019.

“That was an adrenaline rush right there at the end,” Matuz said about her game-winning goal. “We call it ‘playing trash’ in case it rebounds or whatever. Be there in case to tap it in.”

Mexico (4-2, 1-0 NCMC) and Kirksville (4-3, 0-3 NCMC) basically played the full 100 minutes with the inclusion of the two overtime periods of a physical game. The game clock was about to reach zero when Matuz scored her second game-winning goal in three days. 

Head coach Sarah Olson was staying prepared on the sidelines and had decided which girls would take penalty kicks. Safe to say that Olson was happy the game didn’t go that far as she ran out on Chris Hotop Field to celebrate with her. It was the first double-overtime Mexico played since its 3-2 victory at Eugene last season and a 2-1 loss on penalty kicks to Owensville two seasons ago.

“I have not had that stellar of a finish,” Olson said. “I’ve had some overtime wins, but the fact that there was such little time left and we didn’t have to shoot PKs, since they’re so nerve-wracking, was awesome.”

The Matuz goal was the first goal scored on an open play. Emily Moppin scored the first goal of the game in the 24th minute on a free kick, and Lauren Albright answered for Kirksville on a penalty kick in the 69th minute. Similar to the goal that beat Wright City 1-0 two nights ago, Moppin sent a long kick in close vicinity of the net prior to being knocked in by Matuz.

“Emily sent a fantastic ball in and the goalie handled it as well as she could have,” Olson said. “Brenda was right there again just like the other night. You’ve got to get the ball in the box and that initial ball might make it, but if you have people crashing, a lot of times, good things happen.”

Moppin said the Lady Bulldogs were “very tired” by the end of the game and at least liked how a conference victory was there because of their efforts. Even though they wanted the game to end, the senior Moppin said they were still calmer at that moment than previous years.

“In prior seasons and prior games, we would’ve been very rushed and would have rushed it once we saw the clock,” Moppin said. “Claire (Hudson) heard me call drop and she dropped it back, I tried to take a shot, the goalie got it and I just had to rely on my teammates and trust them to do the rest of the work.”

Olson said Kirksville is a good team that moves the ball quickly and executed better than Mexico in certain aspects. Especially in the first half, there were times the Lady Tigers took the ball behind a Mexico defender only for the shot to miss or be turned away by a Lady Bulldog. The defense has been improving every game, Olson said, and has done well with “the hard job” and “saved us many times.” 

“What it takes in the end is getting goals,” Olson said, as Mexico only scored four goals in its nine-game losing streak to Kirksville heading into Wednesday. The Lady Bulldogs’ performance against conference opponents hasn’t been too good over the last couple years so Olson is glad they were able to “go out and play good soccer” against a team like Kirksville.

“In the last couple years, we haven’t been able to compete with conference schools as much,” Olson said. “Sometimes, that happens with the waves of how programs go. Going into the season, you hope you’re at a point where you see that (competitive play). Tonight, that was true.”

Mexico continues its “very packed” week, as Moppin put it, at Jefferson City (4-2) at 6:30 p.m. tonight so there won’t be much time to enjoy the victory.

“This is very exciting,” Matuz said. “It’s a very good win. We played hard, and I think we deserve this win.”